10 ways you are undermining your career

Do you keep getting treated poorly by bosses? Passed over for promotions? Sometimes it is just bad luck, but sometimes you are doing things that can negatively affect your career. Here are 10 of them.

1. Treating your boss just like a friend. Are you sending your boss texts, friending her on Facebook, following her on Vine, and tweeting at her? Your boss may even laugh at your funny stories and such, but it lowers the chances of her thinking of you in a professional light -- even if you don't do anything inappropriate.

2. Not making work a priority. Yes, family comes first. But, your family needs to eat. You need to make going to work, on time, every day, when scheduled, a priority. An occasional emergency won't damage your career. Coming in late, or needing to take a unscheduled day off to do something for your kids or your mother-in-law could damage your career. Unless it's a true emergency, family stuff is scheduled for when you're not scheduled for work.

3. Using your SmartPhone at work. In today's workplace, most managers expect a little bit of phone usage here and there, but we're talking a grand total of 15 minutes in an 8 hour shift. If you're constantly on your phone, you're not doing your job. If you're not doing your job, your career will stall.

4. Being unreliable. If you can't be where you say you are going to be, when you said you'd be there, your career will go no where. On time to work, on time to meetings, at your work station when you're supposed to be. All these things will make your career go forward. Also, due dates must be met. If your boss says, "I need that by Tuesday," then, by golly, it needs to be done on Tuesday. If that's an impossible goal, speak to the boss before the due date, not after.

5. Being a slob. A messy desk can actually stall your career. Seems crazy, right? But people respect neat people more than messy ones, regardless of actual work accomplished.

6. Ignoring your boss's direct requests. Sometimes bosses don't ask you to do things the easiest way possible. Sometimes, they give you instructions that you think are silly. But, the boss is the boss. If your boss is amenable, you can make suggestions, but if he says no, do it my way, and you don't, you're likely to make your boss annoyed with you. An annoyed boss won't be handing you a promotion any time soon.

7. Turning down hard work. Not every project and task is of equal value. Lots of people jump on the easy tasks. Take the hard ones, even if that means putting in extra hours. Bosses recognize hard work, and you learn more when you do hard tasks. Eventually, the hard can be come easy and as a result, you'll be better prepared to move to the next level.

8. Lying. Lying always works great right up until you get caught, and the it's all over. People don't trust liars. It's better to tell the truth and suffer the consequences immediately than lie and get hit with the consequences later.

9. Not being aware of office politics. It's horrible that office politics can put the brakes on your career, but they can. So be aware and do your best to be honest, nice and informed.

10. Not having a plan. If you don't know where you want to go, it's hard to direct your career there. Make sure you know where you want to go. You can always change your mind later, but make sure you have goals and plans for where you want to go or you'll go no where.